Escort ‘fatally poisoned four men he met on gay sites with party drug’
A CHEF appeared i n court yesterday accused of murdering four young men he met through gay websites.
Stephen Port allegedly invited the men back to his flat where he gave them fatal doses of the party drug GHB, known as liquid ecstasy.
The softly- spoken 40- year- old is accused of having sex with the victims while they were unconscious before dumping their bodies near his flat. All four met their deaths in the early hours of the morning over a 15-month period.
Police had previously ruled out foul play on two of the men, found dead within a month of each other in the same East London churchyard. Detectives began the hunt for a serial killer only last week after they finally linked the deaths. Port was arrested on Thursday and has been charged with four counts of murder and four counts of administering a poison with intent to endanger life or inflict grievous bodily harm.
As Port appeared i n court, photographs emerged of him as a child – with a cheeky grin and mop of auburn hair – as well as online images of him posing stripped to the waist. Yesterday the balding chef stood in the dock at Barkingside Magistrates Court in East London wearing a police-issue grey tracksuit.
He calmly scanned the room during the hearing and occasionally held out a hand before bowing his head as Deputy District Judge Shlomo Kreiman remanded him in custody.
Outlining the case, prosecutor Paul Nagle said: ‘The four deceased were contacted by Mr Port over the internet through gay websites. They were then invited back to his home in Barking. They were then given large amounts of a drug by the name of GHB and that caused them to die.
‘He has then had sex with them whilst unconscious and dumped their bodies in Barking cemeteries.’
Port regularly used gay dating sites where he posted semi-naked pictures of himself. In each one he appears to be wearing a blond wig.
In his spare time he worked as a £100-a-hour gay prostitute, according to an advert on an online escort site. A US client described Port as ‘a dream come true’ who has a ‘nicely muscled body’ and ‘strawberry blond hair that is very thick’. He said Port was ‘ the ideal com- panion’ who was ‘bright, interesting, loving’ and was someone who ‘enjoys laughing’.
On his Facebook page Port claims to have been an Oxford University graduate, a former seaman in the Royal Navy and a special needs teacher. But yesterday his parents said he had worked as a chef in cafes for the past 13 years.
Speaking from the front room of their small semi in Dagenham, East London, Joan and Albert Port said they only discovered their son had been arrested on Sunday night when he called f rom a police station asking them to take him £40, some books and a magnifying glass so he could read them.
Mrs Port, 74, said: ‘I was shocked. I am still shaking. I don’t think he has done i t. He will have got involved and taken the blame for other people. He was like that at school – he didn’t speak up. They thought he was deaf because he didn’t speak up.’
Her 73-year-old husband, a retired council worker, added: ‘We know something has happened but we don’t really know what happened.
‘We still like him – don’t get me wrong. He is too quiet. He has been led astray. He won’t speak up, he won’t argue.
‘He had a girlfriend about two years ago, but it was a case of she liked him more than he liked her.’
The body of the first victim, aspiring fashion designer Anthony Walgate, was found yards from Port’s flat in Cooke Street in June last year. The 23-year- old, from Hull, was in his second year of an art, fashion and design course at the University of Middlesex.
His mother, Sarah Sak, 49, criticised the Met Police after his death, accusing them of dragging their feet over the investigation.
In an interview last year, she said: ‘I feel the police have shown our family no compassion whatsoever. It is appalling. We have had to chase them for information.’
The next two victims – Gabriel Kovari, 22, and Daniel Whitworth – were found in the grounds of St Margaret’s Church in Barking in August and September 2014 respectively. An inquest found they had taken GHB and methadone.
Mr Whitworth, 21, was found with a note in his left hand which said: ‘I can’t go on any more, I took the life of my friend Gabriel. We were just having some fun at a mate’s place and I got carried away and gave him another shot of G[HB]. It was an accident, I know I will go to prison if I go to the police. I have taken what G[HB] I had left, with sleeping pills – if it does kill me it’s what I deserve.’
The coroner recorded an open verdict. Police later discovered that Mr Whitworth did not write the note.
The body of the fourth victim, Jack Taylor, 25, a forklift operator from Dagenham, was found in the ruins of Barking Abbey last month. He was last seen out with friends on the evening of September 12. He returned home but called a taxi and went out again. Port will appear at the Old Bailey tomorrow for a preliminary hearing.
Last night Scotland Yard referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over its handling of the case.
‘He won’t speak up, won’t argue’